The NFL season has begun, which means once again we are treated to just about every game being delayed because of an injured player laying on the ground for an inordinatelylong period of time.
In the "old days" an injured player, unless he was paralyzed, dragged himself off the field and the game went on. Now games go to commercial break and longer while the player is carefully tended to.Usually the injury suffered is minor.
No one connected to the industry of professional football dares complain, since every great once in a while a player is indeed seriously injured, and because almost all the "actors" in these oft-repeated scenes are supposedly born with not only superior athletic ability, but superior "toughness" as well. It might be "insensitive" to point out the demographics of this silly ritual, which appears to stem from a need for attention.
Contrast that to how hockey players act after being hurt. I'm reading an article about how rookie prodigy Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins injured his shoulder in an exhibition game after colliding with his own teammate (John LeClair), when I stumble across this buried halfway down the report: "Linemate Mark Recchi also was taken to the hospital with a potentially broken cheekbone, the result of being smacked by the stick of Flyers forward Randy Robitaille 69 seconds into the game. Recchi returned to action a few minutes later, but subsequently experienced blurred vision and swelling and was taken for further examination. . ."
As it turns out, Recchi's cheekbone was indeed fractured. Here's a 38 year-old veteranwho's hada very accomplished career and isabout to begin his 19th NHL season, playing in a meaningless pre-season game, whose cheekbone is fractured yet keeps playing until "blurred vision and swelling" made it impossible to continue.
Now that's the definition of both a professional and a warrior. Can anyone imagine a black football player doing the same under similar circumstances? In most cases he would have been taken off the field in an ambulance while players on both teams held hands and said prayers. Yet another reason to support hockey and the many exemplary qualities of white athletes.
In the "old days" an injured player, unless he was paralyzed, dragged himself off the field and the game went on. Now games go to commercial break and longer while the player is carefully tended to.Usually the injury suffered is minor.
No one connected to the industry of professional football dares complain, since every great once in a while a player is indeed seriously injured, and because almost all the "actors" in these oft-repeated scenes are supposedly born with not only superior athletic ability, but superior "toughness" as well. It might be "insensitive" to point out the demographics of this silly ritual, which appears to stem from a need for attention.
Contrast that to how hockey players act after being hurt. I'm reading an article about how rookie prodigy Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins injured his shoulder in an exhibition game after colliding with his own teammate (John LeClair), when I stumble across this buried halfway down the report: "Linemate Mark Recchi also was taken to the hospital with a potentially broken cheekbone, the result of being smacked by the stick of Flyers forward Randy Robitaille 69 seconds into the game. Recchi returned to action a few minutes later, but subsequently experienced blurred vision and swelling and was taken for further examination. . ."
As it turns out, Recchi's cheekbone was indeed fractured. Here's a 38 year-old veteranwho's hada very accomplished career and isabout to begin his 19th NHL season, playing in a meaningless pre-season game, whose cheekbone is fractured yet keeps playing until "blurred vision and swelling" made it impossible to continue.
Now that's the definition of both a professional and a warrior. Can anyone imagine a black football player doing the same under similar circumstances? In most cases he would have been taken off the field in an ambulance while players on both teams held hands and said prayers. Yet another reason to support hockey and the many exemplary qualities of white athletes.
